The deals that have already been made: * Willie Bloomquist: two years, $3.8M, signed with Arizona Diamondbacks * Mark Ellis: two years, $8.75M, signed with Los Angeles Dodgers * Jamey Carroll: two years, $6.75M, signed with Minnesota Twins Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins are obviously still the top free agents to get if you need help at shortstop, but even… Read more →
Before we get down to the nitty-gritty of this week’s post, I want to extend my best wishes to Wilson Ramos’ family and the Washington Nationals organization. I was so happy to hear he’d been found safe and has returned to his family. I hope all our players in winter leagues around the world stay safe. The playoff races are… Read more →
The offseason. It’s a crazy, weird time. One minute we’re fanaticizing about Carlos Beltran playing right field, and the next, you learn that the Giants narrowly avoid Willie Bloomquist. Seriously, this time of year is fun in a masochistic way; the highs, the lows, the Melky Cabreras, the offseason has it all. I generally hate offseason rumors, but it’s good… Read more →
We have almost a full plate of winter league baseball at our disposal. Every league I have committed to covering here has begun, except for the Colombian League. Team Renteria updated the league page, saying that Play Ball! is scheduled for November 18. None of the rosters have been updated yet, but now we know when Opening Day is. I’ll… Read more →
I held off on doing an update in the middle of last week because two other leagues were starting up at the end of the week: the Nicaraguan League (NPBL) and the Colombian League. Turns out that nobody from the Giants is playing for either league right now. Oh well. Plus I waited for the big day of my entire… Read more →
I apologize for dropping the ball on last week’s update. I had to study for midterms and polish a series of articles I wrote for my internship here. I come bearing gifts from the Arizona Fall League as well as the Dominican and Venezuelan leagues. First, here’s a handy chart of who is playing where this fall and winter, at… Read more →
Look who’s back! I’ve been in the Dominican Republic for a month. It’s nice here, if too humid for a native Northern Californian. I also have much more time than I anticipated, so I decided to fill the void by providing a weekly digest of winter leagues action. You will get coverage of Giants prospects in the Arizona Fall League,… Read more →
“Cabrera, sure, he’s made some errors,” Bochy said. “But you’ve got an experienced guy out there. I know he’s dropped a couple of popups. I think he’s as shocked as anybody he didn’t catch the ball, and he made some nice plays today coming in.” Bruce Bochy, quoted in Hank Schulman’s recap: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/07/SP4G1L1FOD.DTL#ixzz1XKvKDrir Let me start by saying that I am… Read more →
Here’s the middle of the pack in our series on the State of the System address: #11-20. rank name position 2011 team 11 Jacob Dunnington RHP San Jose (Advanced-A) 12 Kelvin Marte LHP San Jose 13 Roger Kieschnick OF Richmond (AA) 14 Brandon Crawford SS San Jose/Richmond/San Francisco/Fresno (AAA) 15 Adam Duvall 3B Augusta (A) 16 Chris Dominguez 3B San… Read more →
The Giants grabbed slappy slapper Jeff Keppinger from the Houston Astros for minor league right-handed pitchers Henry Sosa and Jason Stoffel. First, let’s discuss what they gave up. —- We’ve begun working on a mid-season top-15 prospect list here at Bay City Ball, and neither Stoffel or Sosa landed in my top 15. Stoffel is a 22-year-old reliever that has… Read more →